Conn.Si presents International ELO rating

After months of delays and other issues, I finally manage to work on the Conn.Si International ELO project, and after a week or so of research and typing, the ELO rating is finally finished and published over at LexiConn. But before I go on and spoil things, feel free to read a few notes about the ELO, it’s players and it’s purpose.

Usually, ELO ratings vary from size to precision, but it’s accuracy depends on the number of accounted games, players pool, frequency of tournaments and local competition. There are a few things that I would like to point out …

ELO is not fair!

Those that live in an illusion of fair and flawless ELO rating are mistaken, as there is no such thing as perfect statistics. Yet, ELO is one of the more accurate ratings of competitive players, as long as there are enough games and players to get the sample that is needed to create and sustain it. Otherwise, ELO is merely a calculated image of individual players and their results, relative to their competition, from real life to statistics. I’ve used the same principle that goes for Chess ELO Ratings, so if you are interested in the theorycraft, check out this page; if not, just continue with the reading.

While saying that ELO is not fair is a somewhat ironic statement, it is clear that it reflects the results of active players, and not their skill, form or luck, so one could be the best player around, but without competing, ELO would not show that. In fact, he wouldn’t be on the ELO in the first place. So, don’t forget, activity makes ELO interesting, dynamic and fun.Stay active!

The tanking

The common problem with ELO ratings is tanking. For those that are not familiar with the expression, it’s quite similar to the MMORPG meaning of tanking (taking damage and aggro instead of others), but in this case, it’s more about losing. There are a few players that are considered Top10 in their respective countries, namely Gemini, ibanez, Loacker and HighArT, but this is also true for the Hungarian duo of DyNaMiTe and Horazon, and RobbyG, who is technically from Romania. They face an unique problem that cannot be solved by anything but the results at the future tournaments, meaning they have to attend an ELO-considered tournament in order to improve their standings. What they have in common this far is a tough competition, as they constantly played against better opponents and ended up losing multiple times, while their skill level is not that far down the ladder.

Check out the detailed statistics for the next players by clicking on their nickname: Loacker, ibanez, Gemini, HighArT, Horazon, RobbyG. All of them had to play against the very best from the region; Horazon and RobbyG only attended Conn.Si Arena Season 2, while Loacker, ibanez, Gemini and HighArT had to fight their battle more or less in CSL A league for two straight seasons, and facing a lot of Starbuck’s, Ptak’s, CheeseKing’s and frozz’s made this ELO a tough place for them.

The farming

Contrary to tanking, farming is earning easy ELO points by winning against lesser, equal, or even better opponents. In our case, this goes for SportBilly, barcode Protoss (Slovenia) and Cruel. SportBilly was almost unstoppable on CSL Season 5 in B League competition, but didn’t participate next season and ended up with high ELO. Cruel, on the other hand, did his fair share of winning in Season 6 in B League of CSL, but they both stand in similar positions on the ELO ratings. Last but not least, Barcode Protoss (aka barcoder) can thank his success in II. Division of SGL for his good ELO standing. Note that those players are all good, promising and/or experienced, so I’m not taking anything away from them, but Top20 is overreaching.

To be frank, nothing much. We await for the next regional or local tournament (PlayIT in Budapest this Sunday) that will have an affect on Conn.Si International ELO ratings, but otherwise, hope for some international Balkan tournament or cup to take place. In the meantime, enjoy Dreamhack, WCG and IEM, and follow Conn.Si!

Disclaimer

I am not 100% right. In fact, I don’t even know if I am correct myself. Conn.Si International ELO rating is for entertainment and seeding purpose only. This is no competition, there will be no rewards, seasons or ELO tournaments. Feel free to leave your comments, ideas, arguments and/or questions on my email [treachtv at gmail.com]. There could be some mistakes in the ELO calculation or ELO rating, or missing data, although there is quite some research to back it up – let me know if you find anything suspicious. All in all, stay tuned for more StarCraft2 action on your local gaming community!